1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in a control arrangement for a manual transmission of a vehicle which arrangement is between a shift lever and the transmission, and more particularly to the improvements in the control arrangement for a transaxle combined with a transversely mounted engine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a front wheel front drive type automotive vehicle is usually provided with a forward and transversely mounted engine with which a so-called transaxle is combined. The transaxle includes a transmission and a differential. Such an arrangement is disclosed for example in a Japanese document "Newly Compiled Automotive Vehicle Engineering Handbook", the fifth volume, Pages 1-10 FIGS. 1-21 (published in June, 1983 by Automotive vehicle Engineering Association Corporation).
The arrangement in case of using a manual transmission will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1 of the present application, in which an operational effort of a shift lever 1 disposed near a driver's seat (not shown) is transmitted through a speed changing control rod 2 to a manual transmission 3. The rear end section of the control rod 2 is rotatably connected with the bottom section of the shift lever 1, while the front end section of the same is connected to a striking rod 4 which is arranged to be rotatable and axially movable to make shifting and selecting operations for the gear mechanism of the transmission under operation of the shift lever 1. The striking rod 4 is movably disposed at the upper part of a transmission housing 3a covering the transaxle.
However, difficulties have been encountered in the above arrangement shown in FIG. 1 as set forth below. The control rod 2 is connected in alignment with the striking rod 4 located at and projecting from the upper part of the transmission housing 3a, and therefore the control rod 2 is unavoidably positioned relatively high in level. Accordingly, a tunnel-like or semicylindrical section 6 of a dashboard lower panel 5 for surrounding or covering the control rpd 2 is necessarily positioned high to be aligned with the striking rod 4. This narrows the space for driver's feet in the forward part of a passenger compartment.
In view of the above, it may be proposed to lower the position of the tunnel section 6 in order to widen the space for the driver's feet. For this purpose, the control rod 2 is bent downward to form a bent portion as indicated in phantom in FIG. 1 so as to be prevented from interference with the dashboard lower panel 5. The thus formed bent portion causes the control rod 2 to be lowered in rigidity, thereby making impossible an effective control of the manual transmission by the shift lever 1. Additionally, since the joint between the control rod 2 and the striking rod 2 is positioned above the transmission housing 3a, disconnecting operation of the control rod 2 is made difficult for a repair man located under the vehicle during repairing, thus rendering repairing operations difficult.